Korean focus on Carrier Strike Group deployment?

Some of the South Korean media broadcasts have reported on the deployment of the Theodore Roosevelt Strike Group. The deployment is reported as an Indo-Pacific cruise, but the South Korean focus is naturally on the possible relationship to the stalemated denuclearization talks with North Korea.

SAN DIEGO (NNS) -- The Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group (TRCSG) departed San Diego for a scheduled Indo-Pacific deployment, Jan. 17...

...TRCSG consists of Carrier Strike Group 9, USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71), Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 11, the Ticonderoga class guided-missile cruiser USS Bunker Hill (CG 52), Destroyer Squadron 23, and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Russell (DDG 59), USS Paul Hamilton (DDG 60), USS Pinckney (DDG 91), USS Kidd (DDG 100) and USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115).*

*Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group Departs for Deployment
Story Number: NNS200118-02Release Date: 1/18/2020 12:11:00 PM
From Carrier Strike Group 9 Public Affairs
https://www.navy.mil/submit/display.asp?story_id=111880

The US Navy also reports that in Japan, USS Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) is in port in Yokosuka. and USS America (LHA-6) is underway.*

* https://news.usni.org/2020/01/20/usni-news-fleet-and-marine-tracker-jan-20-2020

Military analysts in South Korea have noted that should the Strike Group operate in the seas around Japan, the force levels will look similar to that during the "the fire and fury" tensions with North Korea of 2017. Recently according to South Korean media reports, military officials indicated that they expected spring training exercises in South Korea to be of a similar subdued nature as those of last year. I think the regular armored brigade rotation is probably completed by now. Some South Korean analysts opined that the regular rotation of ground forces was reported by the US Defense Department sources with publicly available video of the movement, to assure allies in the region.

An election campaign season with voting on April 15 for the new National Assembly in South Korea, free of any provocations or incidents related to the current deadlock in North Korean nuclear talks would be ideal. Unfortunately, the recent public statements from North Korea are not reassuring. If they do conduct more missile tests, especially long range tests, or any nuclear testing, it will probably have a further adverse affect on regional security, inter-Korean relations and the character of the campaign season in South Korea.

Joe Biden wouldn't meet Kim Jong Un without preconditions.

This is the story on the VOA website reported from Seoul:

Biden: No Meeting With Kim Jong Un Absent Preconditions
By William Gallo
January 15, 2020 04:16 AM

SEOUL - Democratic presidential frontrunner Joe Biden says he would not meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without preconditions. It is the latest evidence Biden would overturn parts of U.S. President Donald Trump’s outreach to Pyongyang.

"Not now, I wouldn’t meet without any preconditions," Biden said Tuesday during a Democratic debate in the midwestern state of Iowa. "Look, we gave him everything he’s looking for. The president showed up, met with him, gave him legitimacy, weakened the sanctions we have against him."

https://www.voanews.com/usa/biden-no-meeting-kim-jong-un-absent-preconditions

Gallo is the VOA editor in Seoul. He continues to surprise me, or I wouldn't bother posting a VOA article. I pretty much watch VOA Korea podcasts every day which are standard anti North Korean propaganda one would expect. The daily podcasts are in Korean, of course, because that's the target audience. VOA's Washington Talk program, which is posted on youtube on Saturdays, tends to be more in depth, and the speakers are US "experts," on Korean affairs, or at least experienced Korea hands. Their discussion in English is translated into Korean subtitles. I've been watching these programs and others regularly for three years. Occasionally, they get a dissenting view on there, but usually there is a consensus that everything is either the fault of Chairman Kim, or a mistake by President Moon Jae-in. The idea that Moon Jae-in, the president of South Korea would know more about Korean affairs than an American is never considered. Apologia for Trump's approach are sometimes offered when he is so far off base something has to be said, but the usual practice concerning US missteps, miscalculations and blunders is to omit them or deny their existence.

To his credit, Mr. Gallo's written material here concerning Mr. Biden's view on North Korean negotiations exposes the former Vice President's incompetence. The view that Chairman Kim has been granted "legitimacy" by Trump's approach, summits, letters, etc., is amateur diplomatic claptrap, put out by persons who have nothing more substantial to say concerning the deadlocked negotiations. The notion that Trump has weakened sanctions is absurdly incorrect. Tim Shorrock, an expert commentator and journalist concerning Korean affairs, has written how sad it is, that Democrats have this proclivity to attack Trump's haphazard approach from the right. Trump's impulsive approach includes threats of war, inappropriate gushing about his great personal relationship with Kim Jong-un, and infinite faith in his top down approach. Increased calls for sanctions and demands for North Korean capitulation, alternate with facile and vague promises of a "bright future", and reassurances that the US is "not a threat." Trump evidently feels this inconsistent and hostile approach is concealed by his personal charm and deft negotiating skills. One need only observe the current Iran debacle he and his cabinet have engineered since the withdrawal from the JCPOA. All this however does not absolve Mr. Biden's ignorant and factually incorrect statement.

Gallo's subtlety is that he let's Mr. Biden's statement speak for itself. The statement reveals Mr. Biden has no insight into the Northeast Asian political dilemma, and at the same time has a factually mistaken comprehension of the sanctions regime in effect against North Korea. One can see for themselves if they are familiar with the facts and have followed the negotiations, that Mr. Biden is entirely lacking in the judgement and insight that he purportedly claims to have as a result of his "extensive" foreign policy experience. So the presumptive emperor in waiting as it were, has no clothes, and Mr. Gallo, is a credit to VOA for not attempting to conceal the embarrassing truth.

Different Path, Same Dream

(Source- Different Dream, episode 22, viki.com) The variation on the famous aphorism purportedly represents the meeting of minds between Kim Ku and Kim Won-bong. The original four character Chinese idiom is 동상이몽 (同床異夢) (same bed different dreams). It has been changed to say, "different paths, same dream."


From my prior post on the drama and it's relation to current events, June 18, 2019:

...the drama series Different Dream was produced in South Korea to celebrate the centennial of the March First Movement (the Korean independence movement).

"Uiyeoldan (Heroic Corps) was the most threatening organization to Japan in Korea's independence movement history. Along with its leader Kim Won-bong, many other activists' lives have been reflected in the story." *

*Drama portrays life of freedom fighter ( 이 몽 Different Dream 異夢)
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/art/2019/04/688_266957.html

Interestingly, an MBC promotion of the spy action drama about the underground anti-Japanese Heroic Group explains there is a hidden meaning in the title: <이몽> 제목 속에 숨겨진 의미! From two different paths one dream. '이도일몽(異道一夢) , 두 개의 길, 하나의 꿈' The actor Yoo Ji Tae plays Kim Won-bong, the leader of Uiyeoldan (Heroic Corps).*

*출처: https://blog.mbc.co.kr/3015 [MBC 공식 블로그]

In the drama, episodes 22, near the end, and the beginning of episode 23, Kim Ku is said to have come to Keongseong, Korea, in late 1931, for the purpose of laying the propaganda backdrop for an attempted assassination by Lee Bong-chang on Japanese Emperor Hirohito in Tokyo in January 1932. A meeting of the leader of the Patriotic Corps, Kim Ku, with the leader of the Heroic Corps, Kim Won-bong is dramatized, with the delivery of the 異道一夢 four character calligraphy.

The original idiom is not uncommon in Korean vernacular and well understood. So the "hidden meaning" of the title alluded to in the press promotion and drama, is changed to a more positive meaning in an attempt to quell controversy or conflict by a shift in perspective to focus on a shared national goal.

As intended in the historical drama, the adaptation of the old expression 동상이몽 (同床異夢) was meant to mediate the ideological rift within the Korean independence movement, then, and hence, the current North- South division. Yet, the original idiom still applies to North and South Korean relations. In fact, the two competing expressions represent competing historical threads, one of which is generally unrecognized in Japan and the US for obvious reasons.

The original idiom has also been applied recently to the sputtering top down negotiations between Kim Jong Un and Trump.

눈물 젖은 두만강 Tumen River of Tears

This is a Han style piece, a traditional song, an old favorite. Han is the style of deep haunting sorrow that is one aspect of Korean culture. The Tumen River forms the northeast border of North Korea with China and Russia.

There were no subs, so I tried to translate:


두만강 푸른 물에 노젓는 뱃사공 흘러간
In the Tumen river's blue water the oarsman's boat floated
away.
그 옛날에 내 님을 싣고 떠나간 그 배는
That bygone day, that boat carried off my love,
어디로 갔소 그리운 내 님이여
Where has my missed lover gone?
그리운 내 님이여 언제나 오려나
My missed love, will you return sometime?.
강물도 달밤이면 목메어 우는데
The river too, if a moonlit night, chokes in tears,
님 잃은 이 사람도 한숨을 지니
Losing my love, this person too gives a sigh
추억에 목메인 애달픈 하소연
A choked heartrending moan of memory .
그리운 내 님이여 그리운 내 님이여
My longed for love, my longed for love
언제나 오려나 임가신 강 언덕에
Always on your way, on the hill by the river that took you
단풍이 물들고 눈물진 두만강에
The Tumen is dyed with fall colors and filled with my tears,
밤새가 울면 떠나간 그 님이
If I cry all night, that departed love
보고 싶구나 그리운 내 님이여
I miss so much, my yearning longed for love
그리운 내 님이여 언제나 오려나
My longed for love, will you return sometime?

(Hangul Source: http://lyrics.jetmute.com/viewlyrics.php?id=558519)

Below is the URL for Song So Hee's performance of Tumen River of Tears. White attire is worn after death. According to a note in the historical Kdrama, 이몽 I Mong, (Different Dreams) episode 14, the song was about the grief of a widow, Kim Jeung Son, who discovered after searching for years, that her husband, Moon Chang Hak, an independence movement fighter in the Heroic Corps ( 의열단; 義烈團 ), had been executed by the Japanese in 1923. The note explains the composer, Lee Si Wu, heard her crying all night in a inn near the river and composed the melody to emulate her lament.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eliY0dFAEY.

The song is a tribute to the Korean Independence Movement and the sacrifices made by Korean families during the Japanese occupation,* especially the separation of loved ones. A review of the Song So Hee performance by The Herald noted the original (1939) performer Kim Jung Gu, 김정구. In more recent times, the song is also performed in connection with events related to separated families from the Korean conflict. The popular rendition of the song title is Tearful Tumen River. My longed for love, perhaps better translated my longed for beloved, is understood to mean my beloved Korea, in occupation lexicon.

다섯번째로 무대에 오른 송소희는 고 김정구의 ‘눈물 젖은 두만강’을 선곡했다. 송소희는 “일제강점기 삶의 애환을 담아 부르던 노래라고 들었다. 곡이 가진 강점인 애환을 목소리로만 표현하고 싶다”는 각오를 드러냈다.*

*Herald.com online News downloaded Jan. 4, 2019. ‘국악소녀’ 송소희, ‘불후의 명곡’서 ‘눈물 젖은 두만강’ 열창, a review of the KBS performance on Aug. 25, 2018.

Prosecutors charge 28 National Assembly members with offenses

Today the Southern District of the Seoul Prosecutors Office charged a total of 37 persons with offenses against the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. 28 of the persons charged are elected members of National Assembly. Five members of the Democratic Party are charged with violence inflicting injury (battery). Twenty three members of the opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) are charged with various offenses contributing to violations against the proceedings of the National Assembly. The overarching violation is punishable by a fine of five million won and expulsion from the National Assembly with a ban on participation in the assembly for five years.

(Source- JTBC News, 1.2.19) "Hwang Kyo-ahn, three charges; Na Kyung-won, 5 charges...determined to be (leaders) directing at the scene."

The charged members of the LKP party are charged with various elements of the obstruction of the National Assembly. Hwang Kyo-ahn, who is not an Assembly member but the former prime minister and head of the LKP is charged with three offenses. Na Kyung won the former floor leader of the LKP in the assembly is charged with five offenses. The two of them are considered to be the organizers of the attempt last April to obstruct consideration and submission of fast track proposals to the National Assembly. This past week those proposals were passed in the National Assembly despite further efforts by the LKP party at obstruction legal and otherwise, inside the Assembly. The fast track legislation included an electoral reform law and a prosecutorial reform bill establishing a prosecution office for the investigation of crimes by public officials, among other prosecution reforms. LKP members at first physically obstructed the vote by physically assaulting the Speaker, and then filibustered and then finally boycotted the vote.

(Source- JTBC News, 1.2.19) Scene of physical confrontation in the National Assembly, April 2017.

Listed offenses of LKP members relating to the previous episodes of disorderly conduct inside the National Assembly in April 2019, include, violation of the proceedings of the National Assembly; joint detention and refusal to withdraw; special interference with government officials in the performance of duty; concealing public documents; and obstructing the Speaker of the National Assembly. Hwang is charged with special interference with the performance of duty by a public official; violation of the proceedings of the National Assembly; and obstructing the Speaker of the National Assembly. Na is charged with those same offenses and the offenses of joint detention and obstruction refusal to withdraw.

(Source- JTBC News 10.18) National Assembly Broadcast caught the fast track confrontation live on camera while it happened, April 25, 2019.


This development is likely to lead to further confrontation this weekend as massive demonstrations are planned in downtown Seoul against the incumbent administration. This is a constitutional crisis brought on by the unlawful actions of the right wing LKP party, their leaders, some of their elected members of the National Assembly and their fundamentalist, militarist and authoritarian supporters.

(Source: YTN News, 12.28) Happening again, "animal National Assembly." The speaker of the assembly's platform is occupied (by a human wall of Liberty Korea Party representatives); a physical fight is ongoing. Speaker Moon center being physically assaulted by members of the Liberty Korea Party attempting to stall the passage of the electoral reform bill. This happened last week.